So we've been having a lot of thunderstorms here lately. There have been flash floods, power outages, bleak skies. There have also been lightning strikes, and I'm afraid one of them might have fried the modem on my laptop.

This happened once already to the modem in my PC, so I bought a new one, but right after the term when I could have just returned it to the store in exchange for another one, it crapped out. So instead of buying yet another modem, I started using my laptop for my online activities. But with that potentially fried, I have no way to get online at home. I managed somehow, after something like seven tries in each of my phone jacks, to download my email, but at a 14.4 baud instead of my usual 56K. Grr...

Norton has a diagnostics tool to check your communication, and according to it, the modem is fine, it just can't find a dial tone. Which to me says it's not fine. I called BellSouth yesterday, and they said the line is clear, but I've had problems with the phone lines in my apartment since I moved in two years ago. And I just dread sending the laptop off to Sony to fix, because I rely on it so much now. I'm going to bring it in to the office tomorrow and see if the IT guy can take a look at it.

Times like these, I really wish I had DSL or cable modem. Once my lady gets here and is able to contribute income, I'm definitely going for broadband. Dialup is such an inconvenience anymore.

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Viriconium by M John Harrison

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